Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 9 of 9
-
ItemMeasurement practice in Evaluation Capacity Building( 2014)Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB) aims to enable individuals and organizations to adopt the concepts and practices of evaluation. Its purpose is to mainstream the generation and utilization of evaluation information within organizational systems and structures. It is important in that it mediates the true impact of evaluation to organizational outcomes. The aim of this thesis is to explore measurement practice in relation to content, implementation and context, and to examine how outcomes are measured in ECB initiatives. When ECB is viewed as a learning intervention, it calls for a progressive approach to measurement. This means that ECB outcomes measurement must consider the ECB content developmental proficiency. This study used the Broadbased Research Synthesis Method and examined sixty-three (63) published ECB reports with respect to content, implementation, context and measurement practices in ECB. Item Response Theory Analysis documented ECB content construct and hierarchical structure and Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed ECB content sub-domains. The findings illustrate that ECB content topics delivered in practice fit this developmental progression continuum. The main contribution of this study to the field of Evaluation, in particular in the area of measurement in Evaluation Capacity Building, is the introduction of the notion that ECB is a learning intervention. Through this assumption, it was demonstrated that ECB follows a developmental proficiency construct. This study has clearly established that ECB can be viewed as a learning progression. Based on this perspective, it has set a case to reframe ECB content, implementation and measurement practice. It is suggested that future ECB initiatives utilize this alternative framework for ECB content delivery and measurement of ECB outcomes.
-
ItemSustaining pedagogic innovation in vocational education settings: an actor-network theory account( 2014)Market based approaches to education reform have gained ‘grip’ in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia. In VET policy discourse, innovation is taken to be the main means of achieving this reform. Accordingly, innovation holds pride of place in the neoliberal reform program currently reshaping the VET system, and what VET educators do. However, neoliberal ideologies do not always ‘fit’ with local pedagogic practices and may serve to constrain rather than foster innovation. Given the pre-eminence of innovation in VET policy and management discourse, this ‘lack of fit’ is a policy problem. Drawing on key concepts from the practice-based approach of actor-network theory, this study sets out to critically examine how pedagogic innovation is understood and practiced in VET. An investigation of four cases of pedagogic innovation attends chiefly to what makes pedagogic practices innovative, and how they might be fostered and sustained in VET settings. These are critical questions for a sector in the midst of tumultuous reform and under scrutiny for its capacity to innovate and produce innovative workers. In contrast with innovation as diffusion (Rogers, 2005), innovation as translation (Latour, 1987, Callon, 1986) is tendered as a productive way to think and practice innovation. In the empirical analyses, pedagogic innovation presents as improvised, tenuous and emergent enactments in which spatiality, affectivity and distant policies play a constitutive part. Innovative pedagogies are not packages of learning transactions, or the diffusion of knowledge and skills, as current policy framings have it. Rather, they are co-constitutive knowledge creating practices which are entangled in pedagogic networks consisting of surprisingly complex and powerful actors. What matters most to their ‘innovativeness’ is ‘who and what’ are enrolled in the networks. Care emerges as the dominant practice the four educators use to make sense of the complex forces impacting on their pedagogic work and to ensure the best outcomes they can for learners. This study concludes that neoliberal framings of pedagogic innovation, with their predilection for competitive markets, quality regimes and control ‘from above’ (Bathmaker and Avis, 2013), run counter to the relational, material and caring practices that predominate in everyday pedagogic work. Opportunities for pedagogic innovation emerge in the tensions and when innovative learning and practices of inquiry are embedded in the professional being of educators. They are also possible when the responsibility for innovation is shared beyond the immediate domain of pedagogic work.
-
ItemCitizenship and inequality: the Teach for Australia program and the people who enter it( 2014)This study examines the aims, philosophy and assumptions on which an Australian Commonwealth Government initiative - Teach for Australia (TfA) are based, and considers the values, perceptions and experiences of a number of teachers who entered Victorian Secondary Schools at the beginning of the 2011 school year as part of the TfA program. Modelled on the American version Teach for America and the British version Teach First, the Teach for Australia Organization claims its purpose and mission is to supply “outstanding… inspiring and passionate young Australians to teach in disadvantaged communities…to drive the systemic change needed to eliminate educational disadvantage in Australia”. This research asked two core questions. First, what are the assumptions the TfA organisation presents in its mission and vision statements and promotional material, in relation to its program addressing educational disadvantage in school settings? Second, how are the recruited teachers’ perceptions of their capacity to fulfil Teach for Australia’s mission of changing lives in classrooms and leading systemic change, affirmed, challenged or modified during their classroom experiences? Theoretically this thesis draws on a range of theories and concepts from educational sociology. In particular Bourdieu’s thinking tools of habitus, cultural capital, and fields offer a language and starting point with which to analyse the collected data. Using qualitative data generated through interviews, email correspondence and document analysis the research sought to uncover the sociological and policy assumptions underpinning this model of teacher recruitment. The participants in this study were drawn from the second cohort of TfA and interviewed over a two year period. The thesis shows that the advertising and policy assumptions of the program appeal to recruits by emphasising both altruism and eliteness, as well as leadership as a way to disrupt the problem of disadvantaged schools. The key findings of the research indicate that the people who embark on the TfA pathway into teaching do so holding in tension the desire to be of service to disadvantaged communities, with the desire to progress their careers in both the corporate sphere and as leaders in the schools they enter. The stories the participants of this research tell warn of the dangers of expecting new teachers to have meaningful impact on systemic change that requires the setting up of a group of teachers that are considered elite and to stand in contrast to the existing teaching workforce.
-
ItemA needs assessment regarding programs for Russian adolescents in Orthodox Jewish Day Schools: a comparative case study( 2014)Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Day Schools devote considerable time to advanced Jewish studies. When students join at the secondary level with limited or no previous Jewish education, the schools face an enormous challenge of providing appropriate programming to facilitate integration into the mainstream classroom and the broader school community. This qualitative study, focussing on parent and student voices, examines how two orthodox Jewish schools educated first and second generation Russian students who entered the schools at various levels and the impact this educational experience had on the students’ Jewish identities and observances. The aim is to inform best practice in educational programming.
-
ItemExploring relationships during the practicum in pre-service teacher education: power and positioning within a quadraciprocal model( 2014)Learning to be a teacher involves a multiplicity of factors including cognitive, physical, emotional, and social interactions with a range of people. Much of this learning occurs in the practicum. Over the years the shape of the practicum may have changed but the complexities and tensions remain. This is a transcendental phenomenological study of the unique nature of the supervisory construct of the postgraduate teacher education program at The University of Melbourne and its quadraciprocal model involving relationships between four main stakeholder groups: Teacher Candidates, Mentor Teachers, Clinical Specialists and Teaching Fellows. The purpose was to examine the reciprocity of the relationships between the four members in this supervisory construct. In particular this study explored the impact of positioning and power on the development of relationships in the quadraciprocal model. Through detailed analysis of a range of qualitative data methods a rich “thick” description and detailed account of phenomenological categories were used to identify emergent themes, patterns and broad areas in the discourse. This research aims to contribute to the existing knowledge base about the learning needs of pre-service teachers, in terms of positioning and power and the combined impact of these elements on the development of relationships in the practicum. Findings indicate that when a fourth member enters the construct positioning and power is shifted in new directions and structural and relationship power is minimised. Perceptions presented by participants suggest power-dependency in relationships is diminished by the availability of alternatives in mentoring.
-
ItemOral language in the 'everyday life' of young rural children( 2014)Rural children have been underperforming in national Australian assessments of education, such as the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2010) and are also under-represented at higher levels of education. Literacy, which is underpinned by oral language, is needed to access many areas of the curriculum for successful learning. This research examined the context and development of rural children’s oral language over the first year of school using a constructivist approach and predominantly qualitative methods. The participants were nine rural Australian children (representing 90% of their class), their parents, class teacher, and preschool teacher. Their language use outside school was examined through interviews at the beginning and end of the school year. The children’s developing control over language for retelling stories and recounting their experiences was also compared and contrasted using a range of linguistic measures to gain insight into their lexical choices, cohesion, fluency, and their ability to convey meaning with accuracy and precision. The children’s oral language was also examined through language-assessment tasks, including the Record of Oral Language (Clay et al., 2007), SEA Tell Me (Curriculum Corporation, 1999), and the CombiList (Damhuis, de Blauw, & Brandenbarg, 2004). The results indicated that the children’s interactions were often limited to those within the community, which impacts on their need to use new words. Further, the analysis indicated their developing control over language was nonlinear and context dependent. However, key indicators of competency, measures of mean length of utterance, and number of within-utterance pauses increased. Though varied, all children reached acceptable outcomes after one year at school in English learning areas. The study’s findings contribute an understanding of how a teacher’s awareness of the children’s lived experiences and language use may facilitate the implementation of shared frameworks. This could strengthen connections between home and school, and provide a basis of continuity of learning. Targeted teaching may then move these non-mainstream children towards the use of the more complex language essential for early literacy learning and school performance more generally.
-
ItemPreparing to teach in TAFE: a curriculum inquiry into initial teacher education in the Victorian technical and further education system( 2014)Since the 1980s, there has been considerable research into the changing nature of the role and identity of the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) teacher in Australia. However, little research has been conducted with regard to what these changes imply for TAFE teacher education, specifically how the curriculum for this education may need to be revised to accommodate changed teacher roles and identities. This curriculum inquiry aims to investigate how TAFE teachers in the Victorian TAFE system are best prepared to teach. A qualitative case study methodology was employed to explore the skills and knowledge that TAFE teachers require in order to teach in TAFE, as perceived by experienced teachers, neophyte teachers and senior TAFE managers in three Melbourne metropolitan TAFEs. Analysis of a key policy document, the existing nationally mandated minimum teaching qualification, the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40110, formed part of this case study. A key finding to emerge from this study is that TAFE teachers are always second careerist and employment decisions are often ‘ad hoc’. This finding is unremarkable given the nature of TAFE teaching which requires the TAFE teacher to be an industry expert or other sector teaching expert prior to commencing TAFE teaching. What is remarkable is the variable teaching preparation that participants report is required to become a TAFE teacher and the role that initial TAFE teacher education curriculum plays in the formation of a specific type of professional identity. This study contends that this ‘ad hoc’ journey to employment and preparation for TAFE teaching, makes for an ‘ad hoc’ journey to becoming a professional TAFE teacher. The Cert IV in Training and Assessment (Cert IV) affords a technicist approach to this preparation and the formation of a TAFE teacher who is an ‘organisational professional’ and ‘work ready’. With this said, this study draws attention to the need for a balance between the practical reality of TAFE teaching and initial TAFE teacher preparation. A balance that affords the development of a TAFE teaching professional that is more than an ‘organisational professional’ and assists with the journey from novice to expert teacher. This study’s findings include the strengthening of the Cert IV with a greater emphasis on pedagogy and the implementation of features of two conceptual models identified in the literature and the empirical material and proposed for TAFE teacher preparation. Model one sees formal qualifications linked to opportunities for practitioners to meet to discuss their practice and is referred to as the ‘qualifications model’. The second model is one that views learning to be a teacher as inextricably linked to working with an experienced mentor and is referred to as the ‘mentor model’. Both models share features and can be strengthened and adapted for different contexts and cohorts. Together with a reworked Cert IV, I posit that these models for teacher professional development offer a productive start to a discussion of the kind of professional identities that may serve TAFE well into the future.
-
ItemDeveloping quality teachers in Indonesian public schools( 2014)The recruitment and development of teachers is important for student success and the Indonesian public education system has four recruitment pathways: Government Teachers (GTs), Ex-Assistant Teachers (EATs), Scholarship-Bond Teachers (SBTs) and Non-Permanent Teachers (NPTs). Very little is known about the impact these different pathways have on teachers or schools. This study gathered the perceptions of teachers and school and system leaders on: (1) how teacher recruitment pathways impact on teachers’ practice and development, (2) how these pathways impact on how schools induct and develop teachers, and (3) how the pathways impact on school improvement. Employing a multiple-case design, this study explored one public school from each of the four different levels: primary, secondary, high, and vocational. Forty-nine teachers from the four different employment pathways participated in group interviews, and four principals, sixteen deputies or senior teachers, eight school supervisors, and the head of teacher and staff development division gave voice in semi-structured individual interviews. The different employment pathways were all perceived to have deficiencies in terms of pre-service preparation. The GTs were by far the most highly regarded teachers in terms of skills, attitude, and potential, followed by EATs, SBTs, and NPTs. Schools plays an important role in developing new teachers, but there was an absence of substantial school-based induction programs in all of the schools. Teachers commented that the lack of proper induction was a hindrance to their development as a quality teacher. The differences in pre-service training and support for teachers from the different pathways amplified as the National Examinations (NEs) proved to be a key determinant of teacher assignment within a school. Teachers from preferred pathways (GTs and to a lesser extent EATs and SBTs) were given preference in terms of teaching at the NEs year levels, and therefore, offered more professional support through professional learning programs than NPTs. The pattern was further manifested in the teachers’ segregated contribution to school improvement with pathways, subjects and proximity to the NEs being major determinants of teachers’ perceived contribution to school improvement efforts.
-
ItemDegrees or Advanced Diplomas? That is the question( 2014)Traditionally, the employees and potential employees of both tourism and hospitality businesses in Australia have had a binary tertiary education system from which to choose.They could either enrol in vocational courses delivered at TAFE or they could enrol in university degrees. As of December 2011 figures suggest that there are seventeen TAFEs delivering hospitality and nine delivering tourism courses, whilst there are two universities delivering hospitality and three universities delivering tourism degrees in Victoria.The purpose of this thesis is to examine which of these pathways to employment achieve the best outcomes for the graduates from either educational sector. The research concentrates on the short to medium term employment of the research participants. The employment outcomes of those who graduated with an advanced diploma of tourism or hospitality will be compared with those who graduated with degrees in either specialty to try and identify which group is ‘more successful’.Participants completed an online survey and ten of them participated in focus groups or interviews. Representatives from industry were also interviewed, two from Australia and two from Thailand.Findings from the research demonstrate that qualifications, whether they are from TAFE or university are unlikely to play an important role in the early careers of employees but that as their careers mature degree qualifications in particular are more useful.Additionally, the degree graduates have identified that the skills and knowledge gained from the degree studies have enabled them to transfer into other industries and gain higher salaries.Advanced diploma graduates who have remained in the industries are earning more than their counterparts in the industries who have degrees. They could either enrol in vocational courses delivered at TAFE or they could enrol in university degrees. As of December 2011 figures suggest that there are seventeen TAFEs delivering hospitality and nine delivering tourism courses, whilst there are two universities delivering hospitality and three universities delivering tourism degrees in Victoria. The purpose of this thesis is to examine which of these pathways to employment achieve the best outcomes for the graduates from either educational sector. The research concentrates on the short to medium term employment of the research participants. The employment outcomes of those who graduated with an advanced diploma of tourism or hospitality will be compared with those who graduated with degrees in either specialty to try and identify which group is ‘more successful’. Participants completed an online survey and ten of them participated in focus groups or interviews. Representatives from industry were also interviewed, two from Australia and two from Thailand. Findings from the research demonstrate that qualifications, whether they are from TAFE or university are unlikely to play an important role in the early careers of employees but that as their careers mature degree qualifications in particular are more useful. Additionally, the degree graduates have identified that the skills and knowledge gained from the degree studies have enabled them to transfer into other industries and gain higher salaries.